A deaf Gilmore girl
by totallymagical
Summary: What would life be like if Rory was deaf? I own nothing.
1. Chapter 1

A Deaf Gilmore Girl

My name is Rory Gilmore. I just turned 16 last week. I have the best mom in the entire universe. I'm also on the honor roll at my high school. I can't really think of anything else interesting to tell you about me except maybe that I'm deaf.

That's right you heard me correctly I'm deaf. I know you're probably wondering 'how' I didn't get sick if that's what you're thinking. I wasn't involved in some kind of tragic accident either. I guess when my mom was pregnant with me my auditory nerves just didn't develop correctly and the doctors didn't catch it until right after I was born.

Don't feel sorry for me though I like being deaf I know it's a weird thing to say but being deaf is a part of who I am. It's like if somebody asked you to chop off your leg or arm would you do it? No, probably not because it's attached you and your attached to it.

Another thing you probably wondering is how I communicate with the world. I use sign language and lip reading although honestly I'm not too good at it. I don't like to speak it makes me feel self-conscious so I mostly just use sign language. This is fine because my mom signs and I go to a deaf school in Hartford. Also, my town is extremely loyal almost everyone in town uses a small level of sign language if they are alone with me.

I walked into the best of diner in all of Stars Hollow, and saw my mom sitting at our usual table. My mom singed to me "Hey sweetie" with a smile on her face that only 5 cups of coffee could be behind. I sat in the chair across from her "Hey have you seen my hearing –aids? I couldn't find them this morning." "What hearing aids?" she asked with a fake confused look on her face. "You took them." I signed with an exasperated edge. "Oh, you must mean _these_ hearing aids." my mom signed rapidly before going into her purse and pulling out the purple leopard printed rhinestone case I kept them in. She slid them across the table and I put them in. "You're horrible stealing from your disabled daughter." I signed.

"I wasn't stealing I was borrowing." She defended "What were you borrowing them for?" I asked her curiously. "I wanted to see if they could give me super hearing like the bionic woman." She signed all too seriously. "You're delusional." "You're crabby." "I haven't had any caffeine yet." 1 cup coffee coming up" She signed and got up from the table and walked over to the counter. I watched her order sometimes I wonder if she talks as fast as she signs.

My trance was broken by a hand waving in front of my face. I looked up and was surprised to see a man. I smiled at him and he started talking he was saying something about not being from here. I saw my mom come up behind him and say something to him "you know this guy?" I signed to her. "Of course Tim and I are old friends." "You do, really?" I questioned. "Oh yeah we have full long history of flirting for about 5 minutes before you came in." she signed with a smile on her face. The guy, Tim was so confused by the sign language that he just walked away.

My mom and I laughed as she sat down and handed me the coffee. "Why did you need the hearing aids anyway? You never wear them." I sighed she was right I never really wear the hearing aids. I don't need to at school and she signs at home the only time I usually wear them is when we're going to big crowded places. "Lane wanted me to go get her some new CDs after I got out of school." "Are you going to work on the Chronicle tonight?" the Chronicle is my school's newspaper of which I was recently elected editor. "No, we finished all our stuff early this week." It's not a very big newspaper there are only about 400 kids at my school.

"You're going to miss your bus to school." Mom signed and pointed out the window. I looked back to see my bus getting ready to pull away I ran out of the door I really hate being late. I got on the bus in the nick of time I hastily found a seat and sat down. I took out my hearing aids put them in the case and put the case in my bag. I grabbed a book and started to read getting completely lost in the story. That's easy to do when you don't have any other distractions vying for your attention.

My bus finally stopped and I got off. The school's name is the Hartford academy for the deaf. As I said before there aren't many students at my school. It's a K-12 school and it's also a boarding school. Some of the students live here some because that's the only school for the deaf even remotely close to them but some because their parents don't want to deal with deaf kids.

I walked to my first period English class. I sat next to my best friend at the school. Her name is Jenna Harrington she's gone here since she was in kindergarten and she lives here to. My morning classes were a blur until lunch. "Hello, Rory how are you?" Jenna signed to me. "I'm fine. Why are you being so formal?" I asked confusedly. "I'm auditioning for _Romeo and Juliet_. So I have to practice being all formal and polite and what have you." "Well that explains it for a second I thought you had a brain transplant or something."

The rest of the day went by pretty quickly. I got off the bus and walked to the independence inn where my mom works as the executive manager. I couldn't find her in the lobby so I went into the kitchen. I saw her standing in the middle of the inn's kitchen with a bag in her hand and huge smile on her face. "Mom what's wrong?" I asked seriously. "Nothing's wrong I'm happy." "Why are you happy?" "You did it babe. You got in." "I got in where?" "You got into Chilton." "No I didn't." I signed in disbelief. She took a piece of paper out of the bag and tossed it to me. I caught it and read it. "I got into Chilton."


	2. Into the house of horrors we go

"I got in to Chilton." I reiterated, still in shock. "You got in to Chilton." mom signed to me again as she was walking towards me. She hugged me and we started bouncing up and down and I could see Sookie, the inn's head chef and my mom's best friend dancing to. Chilton is a private school in Hartford; it's a stepping stone to the Ivy League. It will also bring me one step closer to my dream of going to Harvard University.

My excitement lasted the whole ride home, until I saw a look of worry on my mom's face. We sat on the couch in our living room "Mom, what's wrong?" I signed to her. "Nothing." She signed then looked away from me. I tapped her shoulder "Talk to me." She sighed "I'm worried about you and bullies." She confessed. "Mom we talked about this _sticks and stones__**,**_remember?" "I know but, you're going to a new school with snobby rich kids and you're going to have an interpreter follow you around. I just don't want you to have a hard time."

"I will be fine. Besides this will be good practice for Harvard. Don't worry." "If you say so, I believe you. I'm giving you a get out of jail for free card, just in case." "I won't need it but thanks." I reassured her. We sat there and finished watching _Casablanca. _

My mom said something three days later that really threw me for a loop. "We're going to your grandparents' house for dinner on Friday." My mom generally doesn't talk to my grandparents unless there was a holiday or something. "But, it's October. What holiday is in October?" "We don't need a holiday to see your grandparents." "Since when?" I asked getting annoyed. "Since now ok we're going and that's that." She signed with a look on her face that I've rarely seen a look that meant 'this is final'. "OK considered it dropped." I signed not wanting to get into fight right now.

We were in the car outside my grandparents' house when mom turned to me and said. "Raise your hand if it gets to offensive in there." Then I decided to put my hearing aids in. "I'm sure it'll be fine." "Ok in to the house of horrors we go." "You be nice." I signed before getting out of the jeep.

Mom walked with me up the drive way to the house. I should've been clearer the house is more like a mansion and every time I see it I swear it gets bigger. Mom rang the doorbell "Here we go." She signed with a look of impending doom on her face. "Be nice." I signed again. The door opened "Hi mom." My mom signed and spoke.


	3. The battle begins

"Lorelai, Rory it's so good to see you." My grandma said and mom signed. In situations like these I usually relied on her to interpret for me. "Come in. Come in." my grandmother said. We walked in and the inside was just as grand as the outside. It wasn't overly lavish but it wasn't exactly modest either. I could see grandma talking so, I looked over to see mom signing "Take off your coat and hand it to the maid." I did as instructed but when I handed my coat to the maid I saw a look of pity in her eyes.

We were walking into the living room and mom signed "Richard they're here." I saw my grandpa sitting on the couch reading the newspaper. He looked up and saw me he said something I looked over and mom signed "You're tall." Then he asked how tall I was "I'm 5'7." I signed and mom said for me.

The dinner was going relatively OK until my grandma mentioned something about my dad. I only see my father few times a year and the relationship between my mom and dad is strained. Then mom stopped interpreting for a moment she took a deep breath then signed "Rory can you please go into the kitchen for a minute?" "Yeah, sure" I replied.

I went into the kitchen and took out my hearing aids and I wondered what they were arguing about. Then I remembered with the usually argued about the fact that my mom got pregnant at 16 and ran away from home. Not to mention the fact that she didn't get married. There's also the fact that she worked as a maid to take care of me when I was little and the fact that we've lived in a potting shed. But my grandparents don't know about the potting shed so that couldn't be it.

Then everything made sense what we're doing here why mom insisted that we come. She may not get along with my grandparents and wouldn't ask them for anything for herself. But she would ask them for something if it came to me. That's when it made sense she asked them for the money to pay for Chilton.

The ride home was silent and full of tension it was full of unanswered questions. When we had finally arrived at home mom looked exhausted. I finally built up the courage to ask her the question I already knew the answer to "They're paying for Chilton, aren't they?" "Yeah they are." she admitted. "We're going to have to go to dinner for a long time aren't we?" "I'm sure the buffet at my funeral will be the last one." Mom said trying to make a joke out of it.

I went to bed that night and it seemed that time had just skipped to Monday morning. I woke up and it took me a minute to realize that it was my first day at Chilton. I dashed up the stairs to wake my mother up. I shook her until she looked at me and signed "What is it?" "It's 7:30!" I exclaimed. "No, it's not." She denied. I picked up her alarm clock and pointed at the time. She started talking and it looked like she was saying 'no' over and over. "I can't be late for my first day of school." I signed to her. She told me to wait down stairs for her so I did. When I was downstairs I remembered to put my hearing aids in.

When she came down the stairs she was dressed like a rodeo cowgirl. "When did the rodeo come to town?" I signed to her. "All my suits are at the cleaners." She signed rushing me and herself out the door. She sped the whole way to Chilton up but we stopped if to look at the building for a moment amazed at its size. Then we quickly rushed into the building and waited for our meeting with the headmaster. When we were called in we were very surprised to see my grandmother talking with the headmaster.

There was another woman in the room she had blond shoulder length hair and blue eyes. She was the first to say anything or sign rather "My name is Maureen Collins and I'll be Lorelei's interpreter." I was surprised by the fact that she used my real name no one calls me Lorelei. That's right my mom named me after herself she thought it was a very feminist thing to do, I just think she had too much Demerol when she was in labor. "I actually prefer to be called Rory." I signed to her. The meeting went by pretty smoothly if you exclude everyone's silent shock over my mom's wardrobe choices. Eventually everyone left and the only people in the room were me, Maureen, and headmaster Charleston.

He began to talk to me about my career aspirations and how difficult Chilton could be. The one thing he said that stuck with me was "It will be tough here. This school is very competitive but that's how we train you to be. It may be especially tough for you considering your deafness and you'll probably want to quit. I won't lie to you almost everyone in this school is expecting you to fail." "Excuse me headmaster but I have every intention of proving you all wrong." I said almost defiantly. "Good this will definitely be an interesting couple of years Ms. Gilmore." Headmaster Charleston said like he was looking forward to a battle. When the meeting was over I left his office and the battle began.


	4. A breeding ground for psychopaths

I was a little on edge when Maureen and I walked to my first class of the day ironically it was English. I walked into class and handed my papers to the teacher while he was looking at them I looked at the class. Then it hit me that the teachers knew about the new deaf kid but the students didn't. It was that or they had never seen a deaf person before. Either way they were staring at me and it was getting uncomfortable.

When he finally finished he directed me to my seat it was the front row of course_._ It felt like he was putting me on display like an exhibit at the zoo. I looked over and I saw a boy with blond hair he said something to his friend and then chuckled. In the row beside him there was another boy who was staring at me he had dark hair and green eyes and I probably would've found him attractive except the look he had was like a predator who had just found his new prey.

I looked back to Maureen who was signing while the teacher tried to get his class back to order. At the end of class before I could leave the blond boy came up to me and started talking it looked like he said nice to meet you and something else I didn't catch. I turned to Maureen after he left and signed "What did that guy say to me?" "He said 'nice to meet you, Mary.'" "Mary? Why would he call me Mary?" she shrugged but she had this look that there were something more I just decided to let it go it probably wasn't important.

I went to the rest of my morning classes it was pretty much the same as first period. Teachers introducing me and students starting fortunately for me I didn't meet any more predators. You might think I'm crazy for equating a high school student to a vicious predator but when you can't hear you become more in tune with body language and that guy's body language screamed _lion._

I went to lunch after I convinced Maureen I'd be ok on my own I wasn't planning on talking to anyone today. I got my lunch and found an empty table and sat down. I took out my hearing aids put them in my bag and took out a book. I was just minding my own business when all of the sudden I felt vibrations from a hand slamming on the table.

I looked up and saw a blonde girl who had angry written all over her face standing above me. My instincts were telling me to flee but I didn't she yanked the chair across from me back and gracefully sat down. I looked at her confusedly she wasn't moving or speaking so I didn't know what to do.

Then she started speaking I focused on her lips as much as I could. Here's what I think she said "You don't know me but I know you. Lorelei Leigh Gilmore you were the editor of your last school newspaper. I also know that you're probably going to go after the Franklin. Don't it is mine just like the school and if you do I'll make your life miserable. Remember you're nothing but the school's little deaf charity case." And then she got up and left.

So many questions were running through my head like who was she? What did I ever do to her? And the last question was the school a breeding ground for psychopaths? By the time the day ended I was exhausted. I walked out of the school and saw my mom standing there and I ran up to her. We went to the car and she asked me how my day was. I told her everything and I asked her why that guy called me Mary. She laughed and said "it means he thinks you look like a goody-goody."

When we got home I went into my bedroom and took out my hearing aids. Then I lay down on my bed thinking that if this was only the first day of the battle. How on earth was I going to survive the war?


End file.
